Chapter 3: A home, a life, and friends.

8:50AM; March 25; 2017

The trip was pretty short. It only took about ten minutes to get to an old apartment complex named Grand Pangolin Arms. The building looked nice, although you could see that it was aging. It was split up in various sections, each with an own entrance and color. Besides the usual chatter on the police radio, nobody said a word. Judy had a genuine smile on, while Nick looked a bit concerned. I wondered if it was about me.
When we arrived at the apartments, right in front of the green-white section, we got out of the car, and started walking towards the entrance and went up.

"So this is your place to be for you, until either we or you figure out something better." Judy said. "As I said, it's not really the best, it looks better from the outside. Also you'll have two neighbors that might seem annoying, but you'll have fun with them once you know them."

"One question though, am I allowed to leave the apartment to walk around the city a bit? I can give you my number when I charge my phone, of course." I asked them.

"Oh, of course. This is just a roof above your head, not a prison cell. I don't assume you run away." She chuckled. "You won't run away, won't you?"

"Why would I … run away from SUCH a nice apartment?" I exclaimed sarcastically, as Judy opened the door to her apartment. Seriously, if there would be metal bars on the window, it just as well may be a prison cell. There was only a bed, a table accompanied by a chair, a small wooden shelf and a mirror. But the view out of the little window was at least worth a look.

"Oh come on, it's not that bad, is it?" She asked half-joking. "It's only for the time being anyway. You can plug you phone at the table by the way."

She handed me a charger, and I gladly plugged it into the wall by the table, after making room by unplugging an old metal lamp.

"Oh no, I guess it's alright for a few days or so." I assured her. "Is there a toilet?"

"Sure, there's a communal bathroom on the first floor. Just don't use the third sink. I'm not sure if that's water what comes out of that one." She told me with a smirk.

"Ha ha, don't overdo it." I said. "I'll be back in a few minutes. I haven't been to the toilet since yesterday."

I went out the door, and walked down the stairs searching for the toilet.

A few seconds later:

'Finally letting out all of this.' I said to myself while letting free my basic physical needs.

I finished my duty on the toilet. I definitely had to get used to my new animal private parts. I zipped up my pants, and got to the sinks and washed my hands. There was a mirror in front of me. 'Oh so that's why Wolford looked so strange.'
I had my actual human hair on my foxy head. It looked both out of place and stylish at the same time. A darkish-brown short fuzzy haircut. The hair itself really fit between my ears, but the color didn't blend in with the orange fur of the rest of my hand. 'Maybe dye or cut it?' I asked myself, but shook my head. 'I'll leave it, it's not too bad.'
The rest of my body looked foxy enough, although with some unique-for-a-fox details. My paws had a dark-orange tone, while the rest of my body was a bright orange. From my muzzle down, it was a more yellowish tone. Similar to Nick, only that the border between the yellow and the orange was a pure black line, almost like someone drew along with a black marker. My fluffy tail was orange, with a yellow tip, but without the black line in between. My tips of my orange pointy and sharp ears had the same color as my paws, and yellow with some fur on the inside. My eyes were a light sea green color.

After washing my hands, I left the bathroom and walked back up to the apartment on the third floor. Only Nick was left.

"Where did Judy go?" I asked him.

"Oh, she's letting the landlady know you're here, and makes a call." He answered. "So it's up to me to wish you a farewell for now. I put a note with both of our phone numbers, as well as the one from the ZPD on the bed. Be sure to text us, so we have your number to."

"Okay, sure. Will do!" I replied. "When are you coming back?"

"Tomorrow afternoon. We have to finish up a small case, so you'll have enough time to sort yourself a bit." He hands me the keys to the apartment. "But you can still call us at any time if something's up."

"Alright, thanks Nick. Thank you two for everything." I said. "Oh, uhh, Nick, can I borrow some money for today?"

"But you owe me to clean my car." He smirked as he handed me 20 bucks.

"Deal." I agreed smiling. "Wouldn't you usually have someone to do that?"

"Now I do." He chuckled, and started to walk towards the door. "See ya tomorrow, Mordo. Have a great day, and stay away from any parking lots."

"I won't guarantee!" I threw after him jokingly.

Now I was alone. Despite the fact that every floor had about 10 apartments, it was pretty quiet. You could only hear the commotion from Savannah Central. I checked my phone on the table. It was at 10 percent already, so I booted it up. I was greeted by the phone company's logo, and my lock screen shortly after. I typed in my first PIN to unlock the SIM card, and then the second PIN for unlocking my phone. Everything stayed the same, besides my connection now being "Z-Com". The wallpaper was a screenshot from my favorite movie "Inception". Right when the city starts to fold.

I threw myself on the bed, and opened up the gallery. There were a few albums in it. Dad, school, download, outside and random. I opened the album with pictures of or with my dad. It were around 600 pictures. I randomly swiped trough them, and started to cry a little, as I did every time I looked at those pictures. I really loved him, and I still really miss him.
Then I remembered to shoot a message over to Nick and Judy, so they had my number saved. I opened up the messaging service, and send a quick [Mordo. :)] to the numbers on the note that Nick had left me. I got two thumbs up emoticons in an instant.

So, what should I do now? I have some money, and pretty much a full day to go. It was 9:45AM according to my phone. I still felt tired a bit from my little sleepover in the ZPD's parking lot, so I decided for a short nap.


A few hours later; 1:25PM; March 25th, 2017

"Jesus Camel Bucky! You'll never drink all that soda before it goes bad. You either take too long or die of diabetes!" A male voice came through the wall, and made me wake up from my nap.

"Shut up, Pronk, you won't ever finish all of this apples before they begin to rot!" Another male voice yelled back.

"No, you shut up! At least I don't die if I eat too much of them!" The first voice yelled again.

"No, you shut up!"

"No, YOU shut up!"

"How about you both shut up? I was trying to sleep here!" I shouted trough the wall.

"Who is that? Where's Judy?" Pronk asked.

"Judy moved out last week, you idiot!" Bucky answered before me.

"I'm Mordecai. Judy let me live here temporarily. I guess I'm your new neighbor." I added.

"Well, I'm Bucky Oryx-Antlerson, and the other real idiot here is my husband, Pronk." He said cheerfully.

"That's only because I can't afford a divorce because of all of your apples!" Pronk said half-joking.

"Shut up, Pronk! You don't joke about a divorce!" Bucky defended himself. "Also, the only reason you can't afford it is because of all your drinks!"

"No, you shut up!"

"No, YOU shut up!"

I let out a deep sigh, and decided the best thing to get them out of my head was to get out of this apartment. I picked up my phone and the keys to the apartment, as well as the 20 bucks from Nick, and went out of the apartment, slightly banging the door, to let those two know.

"See? You made him leave!" Pronk said.

"Shut up! He left because of you!" Bucky defended himself.

"No, you shut up!"

I went down the stairs so quick out of annoyance, I didn't catch the next few "Shut up"'s anymore.
As I stepped out of the building, I sat myself on the stairs and got out my phone.

"Alright, if I want to go somewhere, better remember where I am." I said to myself. It wasn't that hard to find, but I wanted to play it safe. I searched for the maps or navigation app.
"Furbook, Cougar Chrome, MooTube… They're really into these puns, huh?" I said amused. "Ah, there it is, Cougar Maps."

I opened it up, turned on my GPS, and saved my location. After safety measures were taken, I looked up recommended places in Savannah Central. I didn't want to go to another district just yet, if I didn't even finished walking around Savannah. Although Tundratown was really inviting. I liked the cold. So I tried to combine that a little, and picked the highest rated café in Savannah Central that sold ice cream. The name was Minijeaux's Café. I put the location and started walking. While walking, I checked the Furbook app. Apparently I had an account, but there was only my name and my face as the profile icon, everything else was empty. At least I didn't have to go trough signing up again. I was browsing trough some recommended pages, when I ran into another fox. I heard some books falling on the ground.

"Oh god, oh god, I'm so sorry." The fox quickly apologizes. "I should've looked where I'm going."

It was a young fox kit, pretty much the same age as me. His fur color made me curious. His whole body was coated with black-silver fur in a perfect 50/50 mix. His ears, paws and tail are pitch black, but the tail has a bright white tip.

"Oh hey, don't worry, it's alright. I was looking on my phone." I said, as I helped him pick up a few books. Schoolbooks. Chemistry, biology, english and geography. "Hey, am I allowed to ask about your species? You look … interesting."

He looked at me pretty nervously, like I would give him a smack on his muzzle any moment. But he calmed down a bit.

"Uhh, I-I'm a silver red fox. I have melanism, which makes my fur go either black or white." He answered hesitatingly.

"Hey, hey, keep it cool. I'm not going to hurt you or anything." I told him reassuringly. "And that's something pretty cool. My name's Mordecai." I offered him my paw, which he thankfully accepted.

"O-Okay." He replied, already with a little smile. "I'm Martin, Martin Faye. I moved here with my mum and my sister last week."

"Hey, that's awesome, I only got to Zootopia yesterday. I was about to get some ice cream at the Savannah Plaza." I told him. "Wanna come with me?"

"Haha, nice coincidence. I think I'd love to, but I have to get these schoolbooks home first." He said a little sad. "But I also have Furbook, just search by my name." He added when he saw Furbook open on my phone.

"Okay Martin, doing that right now." I smiled, and typed in his name into the search bar. "Found you!"

I tapped on his profile, and tapped on 'Add as friend'. Martin's phone rang out from his pocket a few seconds after.

"Awesome!" By now, he had a genuine smile on his face. And started to walk away. "I'm sorry, I really have to get home now. I'm accepting it as soon as I'm there, alright?"

"Alright, see you Martin!" I waved after him.

"See you, Mordecai!" He waved back.

I picked up my walk to the Savannah Plaza again, while looking up the directions to the café I picked. It was only a 5 minute trip unti I stood in front of it. It was a small sized café right next to another, large café called 'Jumbeaux's'. Apparently the one I picked was the one for smaller mammals like me, because in Jumbeaux's there only were elephants, while Minieaux's had foxes, wolves, bunnies, tigers and similar sized animals in it. I ordered myself a vanilla and blueberry ice cone for two bucks at a serving window, and took a seat on a free chair next to it. I couldn't really explain why I was so eager to get a blueberry flavored ice.

I got a Furbook notification on my phone, and saw that Martin has accepted my friends request. I could look trough his profile now. He was 13 years old, born on August 18th 2003. His hometown was Den City. I chuckled. 'Are there things like Bunnyburrow and Cavetown too?' I thought.

He didn't have to many friends of Furbook, and according to his profile, he now lives at the Grand Pangolin Arms with his mother Johanna and his older sister Valerie. The seemed like a sweet family, but I decided to not continue stalking trough their profiles. It felt a bit weird without knowing them.

After I finished up my ice, I spend the next few hours walking around the plaza and visiting some attractions that were noted on the map I picked up the day before. I really had nothing better to do at that time.


3 hours later; 5:15PM; March 25th, 2017

I was watching a group of bunny street artist perform a few little stunts and tricks, accompanied by some hip-hop tracks. There were at least 50 people gathered around watching and clapping in amazement.
My phone rang up. It was a text from Nick.

[Hey Mordo, can u come over to the ZPD? We have some sort of present for you.] The message stated.

[Sure. Give me a few minutes, I'm near the Central Station. What kind of present? :)] I asked him.

[You'll see. Just show up. ;D] He replied.

[Alright, on my way.]

[Kk, cya later buddy.] He finished, before the 'Online' tag under his name changed to a 'Last seen: less then a minute ago.'

An adult cop using that kind of abbreviations and emoticons? Nick was really sympathetic. It seemed like Nick was the slick and cool one, and Judy like an emotional and caring kind. So far, I really liked them.

I was on my way to the ZPD, walking over the Savannah Plaza yet again. The first few refreshment and snack stands closed down as the hordes of animals walking around became less.
Not too long after, I stepped into the ZPD entrance hall, and saw Nick and Judy arguing with a giant, grumpy looking buffalo near the reception. I slowly walked towards them and started to understand what they said.

"Listen Hopps, this is the first and last time that I let something like this slide. You know exactly that you had to report him to Child Protective Services, and NOT let him live in your apartment." The buffalo snarled at Judy in a deep and angry voice.

"Oh come on Chief, you know we're professionals. And you also know what kind of procedure awaits him at the CPS." Nick defended her. "Also, I know that you did a similar thing with that raccoon kid a while back."

"That's right, Wilde, but he wasn't sleeping outside but was getting beaten up by his parents. Of COURSE I took him into my own protection." The buffalo returned and took a glance at me. "But as I said, I'll let it slide THIS ONE TIME. Clawhauser has the papers. You find me in my office."

"Thanks Chief." Judy smiled thankfully.

"See? I'm telling you, under all those muscles lays a soft hearth." Nick smirked at Judy. "Now, who do we have here? Glad you came."

"Well, I had no reason not to, did I?" I smiled. "So, what's it about, I thought you'll talk to me again tomorrow?"

"Yeah, we planned to, but this little bunny here arranged to get you some temporary citizenship. You'll just have to fill out some forms." Nick said. "So that you're actually legal around here, you know?"

"Now, let's walk over to Clawhauser. He has the papers." Judy smiled cheerfully.

"Ohhhhhhh there you are again." The cheetah shouted with his paws pressing against his face. "I guess you're here for your papers. Thank Judy for all of this."

"So, what exactly do I have to do?" I asked them.

"Well, normally it doesn't work like this. You're a special exception." Nick started to explain. "Judy offered herself as some sort of formal 'parent', like a protective person, and arranged a temporary child citizenship for you with her as your guardian. That's the basics of it."

"Exactly. You just have to fill out this form and you're done." Judy said excited.

I felt like Judy was going a bit over the top with this, but in a good way. I felt wanted for once, and in that moment I couldn't think of anyone who could fit for this better than her. I mean she took up a fight with her Chief for this one.

"Wow, I don't know what to say, honestly. You did this all for me?" I asked with tears of excitement.

"Yep, that's right buddy. And you don't have to say too much, we'll still do that tomorrow." He reassured. "For now, you just need to fill in that stuff together with Judy. Clawhauser?"

Clawhauser handed me a few sheets of paper. It weren't too much, I imagined it being a lot more. I skimmed trough it a bit. It needed information on me like birthday, name, hometown, and address, as well as everything about Judy.
Judy tapped me on the shoulder, and led me to her cubicle. She motioned me to sit on her chair, and gave me a pen. She gave me a sweet smile.

"Alright, so I guess you know how to do this?" She chuckled. "You seem smart enough for a few words about you."

"Well, it's the first time I do something like this, but I'd say I'm a quick learner." I stated jokingly.

I filled out everything I had to. Birthday, a few things about my appearance, and my name. Judy said she'll fill out the stuff like address. Judy fought a little chuckle when I wrote down my name.

"What's so funny?" I asked her with a fake accusing voice.

"Your last name. Vulpini. It sounds so weird." She said, before she got a little embarrassed look. "I don't want to offend you or anything."

"Oh no, it's alright." I said reassuringly. "It's latin."

"What's latin?" She asked confused. They didn't knew what latin was? Now that's weird one.

"Uhh, it's an old language that isn't used anymore. A few things and people may have a latin name." I explained to her. "Vulpini means 'real fox' or something along the lines."

"Fitting." She chuckled. "You are one, right?"

I hadn't thought about the reason for this question. I just assumed it was a little joke.

"Do I look like a bear or a shrew to you?" I joked.

"Of course not." She replied half-joking. Something was on her mind, but I didn't knew what.

We finished up the papers. It took a little while. I couldn't really imagine nobody checked if Foxwalls even existed. Or that nobody apparently proof-checked anything else about me.
But I was happy. I really felt like I was wanted and taken care of. And soon I'd be a citizen of the great city of Zootopia.

"Hey Judy, is it okay for you if I get back to the apartment? I met someone who I maybe want to talk to a bit, if that's alright, 'Mum'" I asked teasingly. Judy seemed a bit surprised by my use of "Mum", but I felt like she got the joke.

"Oh yeah sure." She said. "You already made friends? Impressive!"

"Well, I haven't really made any friends yet. That's what I try to accomplish trough that. I replied.

"I'm glad you already make good progress by yourself. We'll see you tomorrow then." She smiled and gave me a little hug. "Oh sorry, I shouldn't …"

She started to apologize, but I interrupted her by hugging her back as tight as I could. I didn't get hugged since the day before my dad died. I started sobbing.
"Oh honey, everything's alright." She tried to calm me down. "I'm here."

After a few moments of hugging and wiping away tears, I smiled at Judy, and nodded signaling I'm going home now. On the way to the exit I saw Nick.

"Hey buddy…" He noticed my wet fur around the eyes. "Hey is everything okay?"

"Yeah yeah, don't worry. We finished all the paperwork. I'm heading home now, see you tomorrow Nick." I smiled at him, touched. Luckily, he didn't question it. He nodded and gave a little salute as a goodbye.


Half an hour later; 6:20PM; March 25th, 2017

I was laying in my bed with my phone above my face. I was thinking to invite Martin over, since he apparently lives nearby. They were both new around here, so I thought we maybe could get friends. I opened up Furbook, and shot Martin a message.

[Hey Martin, wanna come over? ^^] I texted him. After two minutes of waiting that felt like an eternity, he replied.

[You want me to come over? Really?] He asked. I could sense his excitement. I assumed he maybe was the one everybody at school or something held distance to, because he was 'different'. I knew what that felt like. Other kids can be asses for no reason.

[Yes, I'm serious. :P] I replied.

[Awesome. I'd love to. I have to ask my mum first tho. Is yours okay with it?] He said.

[I'd say so. Just say yes. I'll explain it later.]

[Alright, give me a minute.]

It took a bit more than a minute. After I almost switched to MooTube, I saw he was typing.

[My mum said it'd be okay, if my sister goes with me. Is that okay for you?] He stated.

[Well, I guess. How old is she?] I asked him.

[She turned 15 last month. She's not too girly, I think you'll get along.] He answered. Well, sure, two new friends are better than one.

[Sure. See you later then. I'm in apartment 304G.] [Uhh, Martin, one weird question tho, you can't bring one or two chairs and some drinks?] I added.

[Yep, I can do that. My mum makes the best strawberry smoothie you'll ever drink. See you later then!] Martin replied, and went offline.

"Awesome! This is just awesome!" I shouted joyful. Everything is going alright. I hoped these two are as chill as they seemed. I only was a little scared about the 'interrogation' with Nick and Judy the next day.


A/N #4 + Fun Fact

Hey everyone! I'm completely overwhelmed. By the time I finished this chapter, my story gained over 250 visitors!

I really hope most of you will stay with me and this story. I'm pretty satisfied with how the story is going so far. I will not try to rush anything yet. Everything's taking it's time. Also, in this chapter I tried out a POV system, to be able to bring you closer to what the others think and do while Mordecai is out of scene for a bit with something unimportant, like Nick and Judy with their conversation in the apartment. Let me know what you think of this.

Actually, let me know what you think of everything! :)

I'll be able to release chapters around this size, maybe a bit larger, in the span of one or two days, since I'm on vacation. So if you guys are in it, I'll be too, and be sure to keep you busy reading!

Fun Fact:

I researched the relationship between Bucky and Pronk Oryx-Antlerson, as their relationship wasn't revealed in the movie. And Co-Writer Jared Bush confirmed that they're in fact a married gay couple. So I included it in my story. :)

A/N #5

I edited this chapter, to bring in better formatting as Venomheart the Dreamer suggested in his/her review.

Also removed the POV idea after I read trough it again. It didn't help the scene. Thanks again for pointing it out.

Thanks for the review!